By Maggie Harrison Dupré
A new survey of American teens reveals that over half of American teens are regular users of anthropomorphic AI companions like Character.AI and Replika — a stunning finding that illustrates how embedded AI companions have become in mainstream teenage life. The representative survey, published today by the tech accountability and digital literacy nonprofit Common Sense Media, surveyed 1,060 teens aged 13 to 17 across the US. It found that around three in four kids have used AI companions, defined by Common Sense as emotive AI tools designed to take on a specific persona or character — as opposed to an assistive, […]